JAMIE Noon is often reminded of his first game against Scotland in the Six Nations championship – in 2005 – when he became the first Englishman to score a hat-trick of tries in that fixture for a quarter of a century.

What he isn’t asked to recall too often are the two occasions he contested the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield when he ended up on the losing side.

“Ah, yes …” The pause is lengthy. “Thanks for reminding me of that. How very Scottish of you,” he laughed.

Odds are the former Newcastle and Brive centre will still be as jolly this time next week. England, with two wins from two starts, will kick off against Scotland as favourites. And not without good reason says Noon, who is still living and working in France as a players’ agent.

“Eddie Jones has been around the block quite a few times and is a very experienced coach. He does his homework and he doesn’t sleep because he’s thinking constantly about games, about players, checking this and that,” says Noon. “He will have planned for every outcome and eventuality the Scots might pose, but he’ll be instilling in the England team that they are good enough and it is all about them, and how they perform. It’s got them to where they are just now, and this squad of players execute his game plan so well. It definitely got them out of jail against the Welsh last week.

“I think he is quite happy, and confident, in the team he has put together. He makes the odd change here and there, but primarily, it is more or less the same team because they are quite good at adapting to different situations.

“For instance the George Ford-Owen Farrell axis in midfield works well. Ford is at fly-half, but effectively England are playing with two 10s at times. You need to be well drilled to make that work properly. But Eddie Jones trusts his players to be making the important calls on the pitch.

“He knows how they cope or adapt to hostile situations, how they manage certain variables, because he puts them in that position during the training and in practice. He takes them out of their comfort zone and really tests them.”

As he did this week, putting his pack up against their formidable counterparts from Georgia.

“A prime example about taking people away from what they are used to and testing them to the max, even when it’s a training environment,” Noon said. “What is really positive, from my perspective, is that if you are going to practise scrummaging, do it against those who are really going to test you.

“Everyone knows what a solid unit the Georgian scrum is. It’s phenomenal. I think training and practising against them, England, and Eddie Jones, has put a real marker down, almost like saying to other nations, you wouldn’t like to go up against this pack in a Test. Well, we’re training against them.”

Noon however knows from experience that rehearsals don’t always ready you for what to expect from a Scotland side on their own patch.

“Scotland always have been a completely different beast at home. Murrayfield just seems to bring out the best in Scotland.

At Twickenham, you always felt you would have more than enough for them and it was a game that you were expected to win. Our level of confidence, that it was a game we could win, never diminished even coming up to Edinburgh. But you just knew it was going to be so much harder to get a result because the Scots were going to give it everything, and more.

“There was an element of doubt planted in your head before those games. It could have been with a couple of new faces being introduced, or someone playing in a different role or position, and you’d think ‘why have they done that?’

“Some of the stunts they’d pull on game day were very subtle. They would make you wait a bit longer in the changing room, disrupting what was your usual routine. Or there would be pipers practising for an hour before the game, so you couldn’t hear yourself think. Or the heating in the dressing room was turned up full, so when you did go out, Murrayfield would seem even more inhospitable and even colder than it actually was.

“It was nearly a form of mental warfare. They just had a real dislike for anyone in a white jersey.”

And he expects no less in 2018.

“What Scotland lacked previously in firepower, or the technical nous, they made up for those deficiencies with sheer willpower and belief.

“I have to say over the last year, the Scots aren’t lacking any of those skills or the attacking threats.

“It didn’t start well in Wales. Personally, I don’t think that was any more than a blip because they showed some really good stuff against the French last week, scoring a couple of tries, but also playing percentage rugby to get back in the game, then keep them there. Scotland were good in that second half and won’t make it easy for England.”